9+ mon, 4+ week ago (49+ words) Continue reading "Hackaday Links: March 2, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: February 23, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: February 16, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: February 9, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: February 2, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: January 26, 2025" " Continue reading "Hackaday Links: January 19, 2025" "...

9+ mon, 3+ week ago (264+ words) The Free Software Foundation is holding an auction to celebrate its 40th anniversary. You can bid on the original sketch of the GNU head by [Etienne Suvasa] and [Richard Stallman's] Internet Hall of Fame medal. There are some other awards, including the FSF's 1999 Norbert Wiener Award. There's even a katana that symbolizes the fight for computer user freedom. Continue reading "Your Chance To Get A Head (A Gnu Head, Specifically)" " Internal laptop modifications like this one remind us of the Ye Olden Days of Hackaday, when Eee PC modifications were all the rage and we still ran black and white pictures "taped" to the screen. Ah, the memories. The Free Sofware Foundation, the very same organization'responsible'for the GNU General Public License and open source advocacy on the part of the Free Software'stalwart'[Richard Stallman], has certified its first piece of hardware…...

10+ mon, 1+ day ago (388+ words) Whereas a typical scale would then simply show the resulting number on an LCD display, [Mirko] decided to use a moving coil meter driven by the Arduino's analog output. That meter was originally designed to show currents, so [Mirko] printed a new background image using kilograms instead. Continue reading "Hackaday Prize 2022: Arduino-Powered Weighing Scale Has A Real Analog Display" " We're all familiar with supply chain issues as they relate to chips and DIPs, but anyone who has requested an estimate for home improvements lately knows that the problems extend to things like plywood, and probably tile, marble, and Formica. Faced with adversity when it came to renovating the kitchen, [3DPC] decided to have a go at 3D printing custom countertops instead of buying tile. Are you still without a printer? Might as well make one that can use trash. Or if you…...

10+ mon, 1+ week ago (374+ words) We've seen several projects that add wireless controllers to a variety of classic consoles. If you've got a ColecoVision that turns out to be beyond salvaging, you can always just build your own from scratch. Plugging in something like an antique radio to see if it works is a good way to have a bad time, because some old components don't age well. For vintage electronics, inspection and repair are steps one and two. When it comes time to cautiously apply power, it's best to use what's called a dim-bulb tester and most hackers can probably put one together from scrap. These testers make it easier, and safer, to tell if there are any big problems with a device's power supply. In its simplest form, a dim-bulb tester puts an incandescent lamp in series between a device " like an old…...

9+ mon, 3+ week ago (386+ words) This project makes full use of the ESP32s capabilities, and the attention to detail that has gone into making it usable is particularly impressive. It certainly raises the bar against previous OCR meter reading projects. [Thanks for the tip Sascha] This is his first attempt at a "functional useful project, but he does love to build the occasional toy, such as this POV Top. Measuring the usage of domestic utilities such as water, gas or electricity usually boils down to measuring a repetitive pulse signal with respect to time. To make things easy, most modern utility meters have a pulsed LED output, which can be used to monitor the consumption by using an external optical sensor. But what do you do if your meter isnt so cooperative? If you are unfortunate enough to have an even older meter which doesnt use…...

10+ mon, 5+ day ago (398+ words) Continue reading "7 Segment Clockwork Display Made From Cardboard" " A pushcar is a great toy for a young child. They're great excercise, and kids love anything on wheels. However, the bigger kids might want something with a little more grunt. [Master Milo] has just the thing " an engine from a concrete saw and the fabrication skills to match. (YouTube, embedded below.) Mechanical parts are in ready supply, with bearings and shafts all sourced from INDI, a European equivalent to McMaster Carr. By purchasing gears, belts and other parts off the shelf, it's easy to make something that fits first time with a minimum of modification required. The testing video is worth a watch " with both top speed and handling tests. The platform's handling does leave something to be desired, but that's half the fun in a build like this. We're no…...

11+ mon, 2+ week ago (1032+ words) [Hackaday Links Column Banner]It looks like we won't have Cruise to kick around in this space anymore with the news that General Motors is pulling the plug on its woe-beset robotaxi project. Cruise, "read more [Hackaday Links Column Banner]It looks like we won't have Cruise to kick around in this space anymore with the news that General Motors is pulling the plug on its woe-beset robotaxi project. Cruise, which GM acquired in 2016, fielded autonomous vehicles in various test markets, but the fleet racked up enough high-profile mishaps (first item) for California regulators to shut down test programs in the state last year. The inevitable layoffs ensued, and GM is now killing off its efforts to build robotaxis to concentrate on incorporating the Cruise technology into its "Super Cruise" suite of driver-assistance features for its full line of cars…...

6+ mon, 3+ week ago (352+ words) [Hackaday Links Column Banner]By now, you've probably heard about Kosmos 482, a Soviet probe destined for Venus in 1972 that fell a bit short of the mark and stayed in Earth orbit for "read more Parachute or not, chances are good that the 495-kilogram spacecraft, built to not only land on Venus but to survive the heat, pressure, and corrosive effects of the hellish planet's atmosphere, will at least partially survive reentry into Earth's more welcoming environs. That's a good news, bad news thing: good news that we might be able to recover a priceless artifact of late-Cold War space technology, bad news to anyone on the surface near where this thing lands. If Kosmos 482 does manage to do some damage, it won't be the first time. Shortly after launch, pieces of titanium rained down on New Zealand after the probe's…...

11+ mon, 3+ week ago (746+ words) [Hackaday Links Column Banner]For some reason, we never tire of stories highlighting critical infrastructure that's running outdated software, and all the better if it's running on outdated hardware. So when we learned that "read more [Hackaday Links Column Banner]For some reason, we never tire of stories highlighting critical infrastructure that's running outdated software, and all the better if it's running on outdated hardware. So when we learned that part of the San Francisco transit system still runs on 5-1/4" floppies, we sat up and took notice. The article is a bit stingy with the technical details, but the gist is that the Automatic Train Control System was installed in the Market Street subway station in 1998 and uses three floppy drives to load DOS and the associated custom software. If memory serves, MS-DOS as a standalone OS was pretty much…...

9+ mon, 4+ day ago (328+ words) We're proud to announce the last round of speakers, as well as the two workshops that we'll be running at 2025 Hackaday Europe in Berlin on March 15th and 16th "read more We're proud to announce the last round of speakers, as well as the two workshops that we'll be running at 2025 Hackaday Europe in Berlin on March 15th and 16th " and Friday night the 14th, if you're already in town. The last two years that we've done Hackaday Europe in Berlin have been awesome, and this year promises to keep up the tradition. We can't wait to get our hands on the crazy selection of SAO badge addons that are going to be in each and every schwag bag. Tickets for the event itself are going fast, but the workshop tickets that go on sale at 8:00 AM PST sell out even faster. And you need…...